Whither DWT?

[Boris Wang]

"Kyle Furlong" <kylefurlong at gmail.com> 
??????:e25vmb$1frn$2 at digitaldaemon.com...
> pragma wrote:
>> In article <e257hp$bsn$1 at digitaldaemon.com>, DBloke says...
>>>> Another possibility is basing a framework on some portable ground, like 
>>>> for instance SDL or OpenGL. But it wouldn't feel very "native", then ?
>>>>
>>>> --anders
>>> This is something that would need to be agreed, do we want Native or X 
>>> Platform?
>>>
>>> Either choice would require significant effort IMHO, and require that 
>>> all different platforms be synced to maintain consistency if D goes the 
>>> X Platform route.
>>>
>>> D is X Platform so perhaps D's GUI should be also?
>>>
>>> SDL and OpenGL could be a useful starting platform, and D's GUI 
>>> Framework could leverage a lot of low level code from the two platforms, 
>>> and a bonus that it is written in C so will be easier to interface to in 
>>> theory and X Platform.
>>>
>>
>> $0.02:
>> As much as I like the idea of using something that is guaranteed to exist 
>> on all
>> platforms (GL), there comes a rather stiff price for backing a raw 
>> graphics
>> library.  Most notably is the fact that any such development effort would 
>> have
>> to build its own rendering and event model from the ground up.  Also, 
>> meshing
>> with the OS's native capabilities, like cut-and-paste, would prove 
>> troublesome.
>>
>> Beyond that, it's the one approach that yields the most advantages.
>> Applications would be guaranteed to behave *and* look the same on all 
>> platforms;
>> kind of like Swing.  Rendering and compositing would take advantage of 
>> hardware
>> where possible, so it'll likely be very fast if not efficent.  You get 3D
>> rendering for free, so it could double as a multimedia/gaming lib as 
>> well.
>> Skinnable interfaces, and paradigm bending concepts also become very 
>> possible -
>> the kind of stuff that makes X11 look like a tasteless joke.
>>
>> So all in all, backing GL is the most ambitious path, but probably the 
>> one that
>> would yield the most promise.
>>
>> I'll add that there seems to be an industry-wide paradigm shift that 
>> points
>> squarely at using GL for rendering the humble GUI.  From what I 
>> understand, OSX
>> already does this, and Linux is well on its way.  Windows GDI is a 
>> bloated
>> dinosaur, and I would not be suprised if MS did away with it in Vista (or 
>> at
>> least promoted a new model that is closer to the hardware while keeping 
>> GDI for
>> compatibility's sake). So for once, we'd be planning ahead.  In light of 
>> all that, I reckon that a GL based D windowing lib would prove
>> easier to back-port to a native toolkit once this paradigm shift is in 
>> full
>> swing - provided that's even necessary.  After all, all three major 
>> operating
>> systems come with some kind of 3D or GL support out of the box already, 
>> right?
>>
>> - EricAnderton at yahoo
>>
>> PS, you could back DWT, Minwin, DUIT, etc on such a lib if you wanted to.
>
> Terra is well on the way in this vein, you should check it out.

Yes, Terra is cool, but it only limit the refresh rate for save of cpu, we 
also need update on demand, and update on changed.